I worked from home today and was way more unproductive than I had planned - getting back into it on the Tuesday after a three-day weekend was harder than I expected (with no real rationale, since I should have expected exactly this outcome because I've had many three-day weekends in my life, and they have never resulted in me being super eager to get back to work on Tuesday). But I did get up before work and write a few pages, so I'll take that and hope to replicate tomorrow.
And the day wasn't all bad - I did get a few things done, which is better than nothing. And I wrapped up a little before five when Caroline showed up at my house - she and I made plans to see the major Monet exhibit at the Denver Art Museum before it closes in a couple of weeks, so she drove into Denver and met me at my house. I haven't been to the Denver Art Museum in years (since before moving here, actually), so it was fun to play hooky at the end of the day and go there.
The Monet exhibit was, frankly, incredible - it was a gigantic retrospective of the artist's work over his entire career, and if I were to switch jobs I might be interested in the logistics, finances, and negotiations that must have occurred to get so many works on loan from so many different museums around the world. It was really well done, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Also, there is something not so different about visual artists like Monet when compared to the writing life -- his obsessive return to specific themes over the course of his life, the way he kept distilling things down from what were fairly detailed paintings in his twenties to what became a very abstract attempt to capture the essence of light and color and feeling in the end, the way he played with and broke the rules around form and movement....it all resonated, even if I'm more familiar with using written words to describe the landscape of internal conflict instead.
So, I'm really glad we made it into the exhibit before the end - it was worth it. When we were done, we had a fancy dinner at Panzano - I never go out downtown, but we had an excuse since we were already in that area. The brussels sprouts were amazing to start with, along with an excellent burrata; I then had a pork chop with polenta that was pretty much perfect. And it was great to hang out with Caroline - we have many things in common, especially with regards to work, and so we were able to go deep over wine rather than limit ourselves to drive-by discussions at the barista area at work.
And now, Caroline is ensconced in my guest room and I need to sleep if I have any hope of writing tomorrow - goodnight!
And the day wasn't all bad - I did get a few things done, which is better than nothing. And I wrapped up a little before five when Caroline showed up at my house - she and I made plans to see the major Monet exhibit at the Denver Art Museum before it closes in a couple of weeks, so she drove into Denver and met me at my house. I haven't been to the Denver Art Museum in years (since before moving here, actually), so it was fun to play hooky at the end of the day and go there.
The Monet exhibit was, frankly, incredible - it was a gigantic retrospective of the artist's work over his entire career, and if I were to switch jobs I might be interested in the logistics, finances, and negotiations that must have occurred to get so many works on loan from so many different museums around the world. It was really well done, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Also, there is something not so different about visual artists like Monet when compared to the writing life -- his obsessive return to specific themes over the course of his life, the way he kept distilling things down from what were fairly detailed paintings in his twenties to what became a very abstract attempt to capture the essence of light and color and feeling in the end, the way he played with and broke the rules around form and movement....it all resonated, even if I'm more familiar with using written words to describe the landscape of internal conflict instead.
So, I'm really glad we made it into the exhibit before the end - it was worth it. When we were done, we had a fancy dinner at Panzano - I never go out downtown, but we had an excuse since we were already in that area. The brussels sprouts were amazing to start with, along with an excellent burrata; I then had a pork chop with polenta that was pretty much perfect. And it was great to hang out with Caroline - we have many things in common, especially with regards to work, and so we were able to go deep over wine rather than limit ourselves to drive-by discussions at the barista area at work.
And now, Caroline is ensconced in my guest room and I need to sleep if I have any hope of writing tomorrow - goodnight!
No comments:
Post a Comment